We provide an interpretation of much of the symbolism of the Looney Tunes iconography, based entirely on the statistical correlation between LT symbols and corresponding astronomical facts. We find the LT symbolism provides strong support for predictive tracking of failed NEO (Near Earth Object) impacts, and hence for a high-level conspiracy to keep the truth from the people of Earth.

LT Characters as Asterisms

We start with the hypothesis that the LT images represent constellations, and that some of their configurations are reasonably accurate “maps” of portions of the night sky. However, it is clear that not all configurations can be understood as star maps. Instead, the zoomorphs (and some anthropomorphs) are symbols representing constellations, that can be used flexibly to convey different ideas. And as they are symbols that can be used flexibly, they can be thought of as a kind of crypto-script conveying coded messages that require careful scientific decipherment.

As they are central to this work, we will describe in detail two key images from the Looney Tunes database. Critical to unlocking the astronomical code is Poster A (Fig.1), clearly a representation of the circumpolar sky with associated asterisms. Seven animals are pictured: a bunny is in the centre, closely associated with a duck. The remaining five are ranged around the perimeter: coyote, kitty, skunk, charging predator, and horizontally extended bird. From complementary folkloric material, we can identify these, respectively, as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Penelope Pussycat, Pepe Le Pew, the Tasmanian Devil, and Road Runner.

Poster B (Fig.2) presents a mass of similar figures, crowded densely enough so that many overlap. Sixteen individuals can be discerned, with several repetitions of each; six of the zoomorphs also occur on Poster A. Identifications based on folkloric data are included in Fig.2, along with three other relevant identifications. Though a sky-coloured background is visible among the figures, this poster is clearly not a specific star map, but no doubt confers another as-yet-undeciphered layer of meaning onto the asterisms portrayed.

Interpretations of LT Symbolism in Poster A

We begin by noting the centrality of Bugs Bunny, a dominant figure in the LT pantheon, and the excellent fit of five of the other six figures to well-known circumpolar constellations (Table 1). The bunny closely matches Draco enfolding Ursa Minor, with the latter representing the carrot in the bunny’s hand, and Polaris coinciding with the bunny’s big toe. [Note: some of the arbitrary lines joining stars in certain asterisms have been adjusted for the sake of clarity.]

Moving clockwise around the perimeter, we find that Wile E. Coyote is an excellent match for the northern asterism of Pegasus, Penelope Pussycat for Cassiopeia, Pepe Le Pew for the Big Dipper portion of Ursa Major, the Tasmanian Devil for Hercules plus Corona Borealis (representing the Devil’s trademark whirlwind), and Road Runner for Cygnus.

This leaves us, however, with a problem: Daffy Duck, pictured beside Bugs/Draco/Ursa Minor on Poster A, is not a particularly good match for the constellations in that approximate location, Cepheus and Lacerta, tentatively identified on other evidence as Yosemite Sam and the Bookworm. What is the meaning here? Could Poster A be recording an occasion when Cepheus and Lacerta were symbolically occluded by some other celestial body, represented by Daffy Duck?

To answer this question, we can employ the hypothesis that a primary function of LT iconography was to predict/record close approaches by Near Earth Objects. Consider the duck. Daffy represents the cultural archetype of the Hubristic Loser, conniving, ambitious, and narcissistic, whose cunning plans for domination are continually being frustrated. What better symbol could there be for an asteroid or comet fragment that passes close to Earth without managing to effect a catastrophic impact? Even the name is suggestive: Earth “ducks” disaster by a narrow margin.

If such an event can be identified, then it is reasonable to assume that Daffy Duck is a generic symbol for failed NEOs, and that Poster A is in fact providing a date-stamp for a catastrophe that did not happen. The prime candidate is Asteroid 2014 KH39, which passed within 1.1 LD of Earth on 3 June 2014, and was primarily observable in the constellation Cepheus. The fact that Poster A itself dates from pre-1990, some thirty years before the non-event, suggests that Looney Tunes is privy to the NASA-led conspiracy to “hide the truth in plain sight” regarding outer space, and that the Earth may indeed be flat.

Statistical Test

Our hypothesis is that the Looney Tunes character images (minus Daffy Duck) usually represent star asterisms, and their arrangement on Poster A, in combination with Daffy Duck, is used to represent the date 3 June 2014. We test this hypothesis by statistically determining whether there is a better fit for the circumpolar asterisms than the one currently proposed. The probability that Poster A does not represent the stated asterisms is (P+1)/Q, where P is the number of permutations that work better than the configuration suggested, and Q is the number of all possible permutations.

The value of Q is Xn, where X is the pool of LT characters to draw from, and n=6, the number of images we consider on Poster A. From Posters A and B and some additional images, we count eighteen characters that may have substituted for the six under consideration (See Figure 2). Hence, Q is around 34 million.

To eliminate any permutations where two or more characters of the same kind would occur on Poster A, we can calculate Q as 6! multiplied by the binomial coefficient C618, which equals about 13.3 million.

P is the number of better symbols for each position on Poster A. According to our rankings (see Table 1), all characters on Poster A were the closest match possible, therefore (P+1)=1. We therefore conclude that the probability that Poster A does not represent the date 3 June 2014 is around one in 34 million, or one in 13.3 million if we rule out permutations with repeated symbols on Poster A. Considering these odds, it seems extremely likely that Poster A does indeed represent the date 3 June 2014. Furthermore, we can rule out any other possible interpretations of the LT iconography, including any suggestion that the images are merely cartoon characters.

12 comments

Excellent article, Rebecca. I would alternately interpret the LT iconography as symbolic of the Hero’s Journey (ref. Joseph Campbell). Bugs Bunny, the central figure in Poster A is breaking out into the world on his journey but is often beset by Daffy Duck (duck season!rabbit season! duck season!). In his journey he observes conflicts such as between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, and Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat. Chaos threatens at times in the form of the Tasmanian Devil. Missing but lurking in the background is the inept enemy Elmer Fudd. Oooh that wascally wabbit! It may be a stretch to base this interpretation on your astronomical one, but after all, “as above, so below”.

I appreciate your fine British humor, but you made a substantial observational error, for which I must reprimand you: Duffy Duck is indeed looking /exactly/ like Cepheus when it is properly rotated. Please check the following link:

That means that the image is a complete sky picture. No mentioned problems there. Please correct that.
Your assessment is better than Martin’s.

Now, the twilight zone:

“…they can be thought of as a kind of crypto-script conveying coded messages that require careful scientific decipherment.” … “What is the meaning here? Could Poster A be recording an occasion when Cepheus and Lacerta were symbolically occluded by some other celestial body, represented by Daffy Duck?”

Your subconsciousness has actually lead you to choose among the countless number of images the one that actually best represents the situation in question. Not only by the shape of characters representing the asterisms, but also by their archetypal meanings.

“Daffy represents the cultural archetype of the Hubristic Loser, conniving, ambitious, and narcissistic, whose cunning plans for domination are continually being frustrated. What better symbol could there be for an asteroid or comet fragment that passes close to Earth without managing to effect a catastrophic impact? Even the name is suggestive: Earth “ducks” disaster by a narrow margin.”

Yes. Obviously both him and the T. Devil (T in this case stood for ‘T’ pillar in your subconsciousness) plotted together to steal the carrot from the Bugs Bunny, but in his show he always wins.

In that context, poster B is your subconsciousness finding a match with the pillar 56, mentioned on the reply to Martin on tepetelegrams.

Actually, I know how the constellations got their names and what is the subconscious connection with the YD impact event. You have no idea how well the poster A actually represents the chain of events that took place.
However, your subconsciousness obviously knows everything about it and has lead you to select the poster A.

More: “Looney *Tunes*” was the source of images, and the asteroid 2014 KH39 passed at 440,000 km.
440 Hz is the frequency of note ‘A’. Among all the asteroids you chose that particular one which is ‘musical’.
Isn’t that a nice coincidence, or just your subconsciousness telling you absolutely correctly that that particular tone (note A) has something very important to do with the YD impact event ? (This is a rhetorical question.)

Other than that, ‘KH’ is subconsciously an acronym for ‘keyhole’, which is a term used in planetary defense. Keyholes are numerous tiny areas in space around the Earth. If an approaching object goes through a keyhole, on a subsequent return it will collide with her. The YD comet first passed through a keyhole, during the year marked on the Vulture Stone, 10,961 BC, fissioned in two due to tidal stress, and then on the subsequent return impacted, on Aug 29, 10,950 BC, as was also recorded precisely on the Vulture Stone and elsewhere.
Even more: 2014 KH 39 has a diameter of 25 m, whereby the impact speed of the comet was about 25 km/s.

All that can also be read from the impact craters, the locations of which are recorded on Göbekli Tepe.

“Furthermore, we can rule out any other possible interpretations of the LT iconography, including any suggestion that the images are merely cartoon characters.”

Can you really ?

What you just demonstrated here is what occurs all over the world. The chain of events that took place during the YD event is so deeply rooted in subconsciousness that it is being repeated over and over again everywhere. Of course, since you don’t know the chain of events, you cannot assess how accurately poster A represents it. But, I do.

I simply, and overwhelmingly, /congratulate/ you!
(That said, please amend this article by including the pointed image of Cepheus…)

I do apologize. I honestly thought you were running with the joke. I’ll give you a straight reply, then. I don’t really see any resemblance between Cepheus and Daffy Duck. (And there’s a sentence I never dreamed I’d write.) Consider as well, that if Daffy is equated with Cepheus, then 2014 KH39 is irrelevant anyway.

No, you are wrong. In your analogy you have complete freedom to choose both the cartoon characters and the constellations. Your analogy is no different to ‘seeing shapes in the clouds’. In our work, the constellations are given by those around Scorpius and the animal symbols are given by those on Pillar 43. No choice at all. This makes all the difference. We make exactly this point in our rebuttal to Notroff et al.

Well, Martin, I would say that, in “seeing shapes in the clouds,” I am doing no more than following your example. I chose an image based on two criteria: the circular format, representing the circumpolar sky; and a minimum of six characters. Once that image was chosen, I had no choice. No choice at all.
And you have to admit, my matching of constellations with characters is very good, in fact, better than yours in terms of both shape and position. (See Burley’s assessment of your paper for a critique of your “approximate” positions and matches.) In establishing my pool of possible images, I follow your example by examining the pool of known Looney Tunes characters. Applying your statistical methodology, I arrive at a probability of one in 34 million that my interpretation is incorrect, or about 99.99999997% chance that my interpretation is correct, and therefore the only possible interpretation. I would judge that this procedure does not test our joint initial assumption (Looney Tunes/GT animals = asterisms), but with these odds I can afford to be very confident. The probability I am right is in the region of 99.99999997%, which gives me plenty of confidence.* So again, I am simply following your example.
*Your words.

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About Rebecca

A natural-born atheist with a fundamentalist Christian background, I have spent sixty years so far trying to decide what to be when I grow up. Meantime, I’ve kept myself busy earning a PhD in Archaeology from Cambridge, and working variously as an archaeologist in Egypt and the Sudan, a housewife and mother in Northern Ireland, a technical editor in Kuwait, a desktop publisher and part-time life model in Hong Kong, and a university sessional lecturer in Calgary and Berlin.
At intervals through all this, I have published four novels and numerous short stories - mostly fantasy and horror, but also including a collection of Biblical riffs, from which this blog takes its name. Recently, I returned to my roots in Western Canada, combining writing with raising chickens and vegetables on an acreage in the Kootenays, supervised by many cats.